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Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean says the tea party was "totally unreasonable" in the deficit-reduction debate and warns that Republicans are being held hostage. "This is a tea party problem," Dean said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." "They are totally unreasonable and doctrinaire and not founded in reality. I think they've been smoking some of that tea, not just drinking it." "This is ridiculous what's going on here," he said. The firebrand Democrat and former Vermont governor said the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the nation's credit is "a good thing" because it underscores the need to...

Dean: What is tea party smoking? Former Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean says the tea party was "totally unreasonable" in the deficit-reduction debate and warns that Republicans are being held hostage. "This is a tea party problem," Dean said Sunday on CBS's "Face the Nation." "They are totally unreasonable and doctrinaire and not founded in reality. I think they've been smoking some of that tea, not just drinking it." "This is ridiculous what's going on here," he said. The firebrand Democrat and former Vermont governor said the Standard & Poor's downgrade of the nation's credit is "a good thing" because...

Barack Obama called Saturday for an end to insults and demands in the negotiations over the debt ceiling, after they broke down Friday night. In his weekly address, ahead of an emergency meeting at the White House Saturday morning, the president said that the government had spent more money than it takes in for year and result was "a lot of debt on our nation's credit card." This debt would "weaken our economy, cause higher interest rates for families, and force us to scale back things like education and Medicare" unless action was taken, Obama said. "Now, folks in Washington...

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) calls Republicans "dead-beat debtors" among other things during a Democratic press conference on Wednesday morning. "The debate and fight is not between Democrats and Republicans. It's between some Republicans and their sort of cult fringe as I refer to them out there," Harkin said. "Democrats are willing to do whatever is necessary to raise the debt ceiling, not for future borrowing but to pay the debts that we racked up in the past. Which, mostly was racked up by a Republican House, a Republican Senate and a Republican President in the last 8 years. Yet, they're...

Washington, D.C.– Nevada Senator Harry Reid made the following remarks today on the Senate floor regarding Senate Democrats’ meeting last week with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery:Senate Democrats sat down with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, and he painted a picture of what our world will look like if Republicans in Congress force this nation for the first time in its history to default on its financial obligations.The picture was grim. This is how he described the state of our government if Congress allows this unprecedented default: “lights out.” He said default would result...

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The head of the Democratic Governors Association is accusing GOP debt negotiators in Washington of trying to damage the economy so President Barack Obama will lose next year's election.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Testy lawmakers pointed fingers at one another and President Barack Obama on Thursday as negotiations over raising the national debt limited entered a perilous endgame. Wall Street eyed the standoff with growing anxiety, warning of catastrophe if the U.S. defaults on its obligations. Obama's blunt declaration that "enough is enough" as Wednesday's talks ended did nothing to quell the rancor as a new day of positioning and posturing began. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid took to the Senate floor early in the day to snipe that House Republican Leader Eric Cantor shouldn't even be part of the...

DNC Chair Wasserman Schultz: GOP Acts Like ‘Spoiled Children’ Sitting On Their Hands During Debt Talksby Matt Schneider | 3:31 pm, July 13th, 2011 Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz appeared with Andrea Mitchell earlier today and expressed her displeasure with Senator Mitch McConnell’s plan to “shove” the debt ceiling decision back on President Obama. Instead she argued Americans want everyone in Washington to sit at the table like grown-ups and work out a deal. And she was just getting started with her maturity-based analogies. Wasserman Schultz disputed the idea that House Democrats were upset with Obama, and instead...

Someone ought to study the Republican Party. I am not referring to yet another political scientist but to a mental health professional, preferably a specialist in the power of fixations, obsessions and the like. The GOP needs an intervention. It has become a cult. In order to become a Republican, one has to take a pledge. It is not enough to support the party or mouth banalities about Ronald Reagan, one has to first promise not to give the government another nickel. This is called the "Taxpayer Protection Pledge," issued by Americans for Tax Reform, an organization headed by the...

Chris Christie "A Rotten Bastard," Top New Jersey Democrat Says Zeke Miller July 5, 2011, 2:07 PM So what does New Jersey Senate President Stephen Sweeney (D) really think of Republican Gov. Chris Christie? "He’s a rotten prick," Sen. Sweeney said in a shocking, unfiltered interview with The Newark Star Ledger. The top Senate Democrat accused the governor of using his line-item veto powers to punish Democratic lawmakers. "Last night I couldn’t calm down," Sweeney said. "To prove a point to me — a guy who has stood side by side with him, and made tough decisions — for him...

'I want to punch him in his head' By: Maggie Haberman July 3, 2011 02:35 PM EDT The Newark Star-Ledger has some explosive quotes from one of the two Democratic legislative leaders who recently reached a compromise on a pension reform bill with Gov. Chris Christie regarding the overall state budget: Senate President Stephen Sweeney went to bed furious Thursday night after reviewing the governor’s line-item veto of the state budget. He woke up Friday morning even angrier. “This is all about him being a bully and a punk,” he said in an interview Friday. “I wanted to punch him...

“30 Rock” actor Alec Baldwin took to Twitter Tuesday evening to rant and rave about Rep. Michele Bachmann’s fundraising ability. Baldwin, who only started tweeting last month, suggested the Minnesota congresswoman’s early success is due to her connection with “thuggish interests.”

Fox Nation pointed out that Alec Baldwin bashed Michele Bachmann on Twitter on Tuesday night: Fear Bachman bc she is raising so much money. Anyone that inarticulate and full of s--- who is raising money that fast ...is beholden to some mighty thuggish interests. Baldwin also insisted to a conservative tweeter last night: "it's the old adage, but applied to gay marriage. Your freedom ends at the end of my....." Speaking of inarticulate and full of beans, somehow Baldwin attempted to turn Anthony Weiner's Twitter antics into sophistication in a Huffington Post article titled "Anthony Weiner is a Modern Human...

Rep. Michele Bachmann, the unhinged Republican presidential candidate, desperately wants the public to believe she’s a “serious person,” and not at all a “flake.” She could start by avoiding mistakes like these. Rep. Michele Bachmann kicked off her presidential campaign on Monday in Waterloo, Iowa, and in one interview surrounding the official event she promised to mimic the spirit of Waterloo’s own John Wayne. The only problem, as one eagle-eyed reader notes: Waterloo’s John Wayne was not the beloved movie star, but rather John Wayne Gacy, the serial killer. Yep, here’s the video. The right-wing congresswoman told Fox News, “[W]hat...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: There is this guy at the Washington Post, a blogger, his name is Greg Sargent, and I don't know where he came from. He came from some previously failed Drive-By institution. He might have come from some place called Editor and Publisher, I'm not sure. Editor and Publisher was almost like a trade publication for the media. It's far-left, just insane, and this guy has got his own blog now and he sends me snarky e-mails now and then. I got his latest piece, I said surely I can't be seeing what I'm seeing here. This is...

With Tea Party conservatives and many Republicans balking at raising the debt ceiling, let me offer them an example of a nation that lives up to their ideals. It has among the lowest tax burdens of any major country: fewer than 2 percent of the people pay any taxes. Government is limited, so that burdensome regulations never kill jobs. This society embraces traditional religious values and a conservative sensibility. Nobody minds school prayer, same-sex marriage isn’t imaginable, and criminals are never coddled. The budget priority is a strong military, the nation’s most respected institution. When generals decide on a policy...

Pornographer Larry Flynt Calls Palin's Down Syndrome Son 'Brain Dead Vegetable' By Noel Sheppard Created 05/28/2011 - 6:06pm By Noel Sheppard | May 28, 2011 | 18:06 Following in the footsteps of the liberal website Wonkette, pornographer Larry Flynt called Sarah Palin's Down Syndrome son Trig "brain dead - a virtual vegetable." Such was reported by Britain's Independent Friday: It's hard to keep him focused on this subject, or any subject. His conversation skids about. He doubts Barack Obama would cheat on his wife because: "You ever looked at her? If he ever cheated on her she'd kick his ass....

Amazing Guilt! How Sweet The Sound That made you a Wretch, not me I once was lost, until I found You're blind, but I can see 'Twas Guilt that taught my heart to fear. Your Guilt, my fears relieved How precious did your Guilt appear The hour 'twas first conceived Though many dangers, toils, and snares You've caused, you worthless bum Your Guilt makes me superior Your Guilt, that's it, in sum Liberalism sounds good to me My hope is insecure I've no-one I must answer to As long as life endures Yes when my flesh and heart shall fail...

Bring it on, Barry. If you say the GOP wants to make America a Third World country, Republicans can charge you with already having made the US a banana republic. AFP: The attack came a day after Obama savaged Republican budget plans and unveiled his $4-trillion deficit reduction drive that aims to raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans in order to preserve key social services.The debate over fiscal policy will prove critical to the 2012 campaign and Obama sought to frame it as a "stark choice" between investing in the future or watching the country fall apart."Under their vision, we...

Keith Olbermann is not known for his candor. In a sense, it‘s what’s made him a popular figure on the left. And sure, he makes off-the-wall comments sometimes in order to evoke a response. But he may have gone too far today when he suggested that conservative commentator S.E. Cupp is a prime example of why the world needs Planned Parenthood (PP). Translation, she should have never been born. Immediately, the comment drew fire from those who said Olbermann, the former MSNBC host turned Current TV commentator, insinuated Cupp should have been aborted. And just as quickly, Olbermann started treading...